Thereās something so intimate and special about enjoying an artist or record that isnāt on streaming services. There are a lot of reasons someone might not have their work streaming, whether itās ethical or financial or due to rights issues or simply being that obscure. But it feels so good to have a physical record and put it on and listen to it knowing that youāre experiencing music that you love in such an individual way, where whatever path took you to discovering it is actually personal in some way and not just the result of an algorithm deciding what you should be listening to, and that you are one of a very limited number of people celebrating someoneās art solely by choice which is so beautiful and rare
streaming services are very cool and all, and they have definitely allowed me to discover artists that i probably wouldnāt have otherwise, but having a physical copy of music - an album, single, or a mix - is extremely important to me. i find comfort in knowing that no one can really ātakeā the music away from me in the event that spotify crashed or something. also, with vinyl, especially, having a physical copy of the music forces you to take care of it and pay attention to it. you canāt just mindlessly listen to a record because you have to get up and flip it over, and then carefully place it back into its sleeve. if you make a mixtape, you have to sit and think about what songs you want and what order you want them in. if you walk into a music shop, you canāt (or at least most of us canāt) just go in there and buy any album(s) on a whim - you have to be selective, because youāre spending money on it. also, i just enjoy the experience of going to a record store. the smell of the old albums, sifting through all the bins and shelves, chatting with the owner - itās an experience that will always be so lovely to me, and one i would never have if i solely depended upon my phone for music. i just believe that streaming services have allowed us to become mindless consumers of media. we take it all for granted and arenāt as intentional about any of it as we used to be. i suppose itās another form of overconsumption. once again, i am extremely glad of what the platforms have allowed me to find, and i donāt think theyāre evil, i just think many folks have lost sight of how music is supposed to be treated.
discovering new music worlds with physical records and not from the comfort of a phone screen can be so refreshing and interesting. embrace how people used to do it there is so much old music out there to be found and listened to in its purest form
Iām not super anti-streaming but I do think everyone should actually own (psychically or digitally) their music library again, instead of basically just renting it all. To think that any streaming platform is capable of removing any album or song you like at any momentās notice is super annoying. I do see a world where both can co-exist where you use streaming to discover new music and use other means like bandcamp, cds, records, downloads, etc to support and consume a musicianās work.
Going online used to be an activity you sat down to and then could get up and walk away from. Now itās some kind of panopticon that weāre connected to almost 24/7 that requires our constant availability and can demand our attention whenever it wants. We werenāt meant to be this online!!!! Actual pic from my personal archives (playing Unreal Tournament with a new 3dfx graphics card circa 2000)